The "Mirror and Listen" Trick by Pu Songling
In I-tu, the younger Chêng brother studies harder after his wife protests their parents’ preference for his elder brother and his wife. Before the examination results arrive, she tries a divination ritual and hears “You go and get cool”; when both brothers pass, those words recur as each wife is released from cooking in the heat.
By Pu Songling · Genre: Short Story, Folklore · 611 words
First lines
At I-tu there lived a family of the name of Chêng. The two sons were both distinguished scholars, but the elder was early known to fame, and, consequently, the favourite with his parents, who also extended their preference to his wife. The younger brother was a trifle wild, which displeased his father and mother very much, and made them regard his wife, too, with anything but a friendly eye. The latter reproached her husband for being the cause of this, and asked him why he, being a man like his brother, could not vindicate the slights that were put upon her. This piqued him; and, setting to work in good earnest, he soon gained a fair reputation, though still not equal to his brother's. That year the two went up for the highest degree; and, on New Year's Eve, the wife of the younger, very anxious for the success of her husband, secretly tried the "mirror and listen" trick.[1] She saw two men pushing each other in jest, and heard them say, "You go and get cool," which remark she was quite unable to interpret for good or for bad, so she thought no more about the matter. After the examination, the two brothers returned home; and one day, when the weather was extremely hot, and their two wives were hard at work in the cook-house, preparing food for their field-labourers, a messenger rode up in hot haste[2] to announce that the elder brother had passed. Thereupon his mother went into the cook-house, and, calling to her daughter-in-law, said, "Your husband has passed; _you go and get cool_. " Rage and grief now filled the breast of the second son's wife, who, with tears in her eyes, continued her task of cooking, when suddenly another messenger rushed in to say, that the second son had passed, too. At this, his wife flung down her frying-pan, and cried out, "Now I'll _go and get cool_; " and as in the heat of her excitement she uttered these words, the recollection of her trial of the "mirror and listen" trick flashed upon her, and she knew that the words of that evening had been fulfilled.
Genres
- Short Story — A brief household narrative follows parental favouritism, examination news and the younger wife’s recognition of an earlier omen.
- Folklore — The wife practises the mirror-and-listen divination custom, whose methods are explained in a note, and interprets repeated words as its fulfilment.
Tags
divination · examinations · parental favouritism · siblings · omens · household labour
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The "Mirror and Listen" Trick is listed on Textopian as a short story by Pu Songling, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Short story
- Author: Pu Songling
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Short Story, Folklore
- Length: 611 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)
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